Watching Brief at St. Mary's Church, Whitkirk, Leeds

The work comprised archaeological monitoring in a total of three areas, where works were undertaken by the main contractor by hand. Within the west end of the north aisle the existing timber pew base was removed by hand to allow a new floor to be constructed at a slightly lower level, the same as the existing adjacent stone flagged surface. In addition the internal face of the adjacent north wall had the render removed as part of the attempts to address damp within the church. The existing flagged floor adjacent to the foundations of the tower, at the extreme west end of the nave were lifted to allow for the insertion of a services duct and again to attempt to alleviate damp. Finally a trench was hand excavated against the external north wall of the tower. The opening up and trench excavation did not reveal or disturb any significant early deposits associated with the church. The only features and deposits that were removed are likely to date to the later 19th, 20th and early 21st centuries with the latter appearing to relate to previous attempts to address the problem of damp within this area of the church. Removal of plaster from the internal face of the north aisle wall confirmed the presence of a former doorway, which is also visible in the exposed external wall at this position. No artefacts were retained during the archaeological investigation. The small quantity of disarticulated human bone was carefully collected and passed on to the reverend Claire Honess for appropriate reburial.